PHP will printout items such as
"Parse Error: whatever" if you have a missing character required or an extra character.
"Unknown mysql resource" errors printout.
These printouts help you in finding where you may have issues in your souce.
example:
WHERE id=$id") or die (mysql_error());
"mysql_error" will display an explination if there is a failure. The explinationa are not always clear, but as you get more into PHP, you will begin to interpret these printouts.